Oxidative stress could be a key selective force shaping the expression of colored traits produced by the primary animal pigments in integuments: carotenoids and melanins. However, the impact of oxidative stress on melanic ornaments has only recently been explored, whereas its role in the expression of carotenoid-based traits is not fully understood. An interesting study case is that of those an...

Carotenoid-based coloration is a common sexually selected trait in birds and fishes (Hill 2006). Their inexorable link to nutrition and their chemical tractability have made carotenoid colors fashionable models for investigating the costs and benefits of sexual features (McGraw 2006). The last decade of work on the signal content of carotenoid colors has uncovered several apparently Corresponde...

Understanding of the widespread biological importance of carotenoids is increasing. Accompanying this is the developing recognition that the interaction of carotenoids with other molecules, such as proteins, is also essential. Here the significance of carotenoid-protein interactions with respect to biological function is reviewed for three well characterised carotenoprotein complexes; crustacya...

There is growing need for accurate information regarding the bioavailability of carotenoids, both with respect to carotenoids per se and to the vitamin A value of provitamin A carotenoids in foods or supplement preparations. Little quantitative information is currently available, owing primarily to the lack of adequate methods to assess carotenoid bioavailability. Methods applied to xenobiotic ...

This review article points out that bananas are an important food for many people in the world. Thus, banana cultivars rich in provitamin A carotenoids may offer a potential food source for alleviating vitamin A deficiency, particularly in developing countries. Many factors are associated with the presently known food sources of vitamin A that limit their effectiveness in improving vitamin A st...

This review article points out that bananas are an important food for many people in the world. Thus, banana cultivars rich in provitamin A carotenoids may offer a potential food source for alleviating vitamin A deficiency, particularly in developing countries. Many factors are associated with the presently known food sources of vitamin A that limit their effectiveness in improving vitamin A st...

Carotenoids constitute an important component of the defense system against photooxidative stress in bacteria. In Azospirillum brasilense Sp7, a nonphotosynthetic rhizobacterium, carotenoid synthesis is controlled by a pair of extracytoplasmic function sigma factors (RpoEs) and their cognate zinc-binding anti-sigma factors (ChrRs). Its genome harbors two copies of the gene encoding geranylgeran...

We investigated potential dietary and biochemical bases for carotenoid-based sexual dichromatism in American goldfinches (Carduelis tristis). Captive male and female finches were given access to the same type and amount of carotenoid pigments in the diet during their nuptial molt to assess differences in the degree to which the two sexes incorporated ingested pigments into their plumage. When b...

Skin colouration appears to play a pivotal part in facial attractiveness. Skin yellowness contributes to an attractive appearance and is influenced both by dietary carotenoids and by melanin. While both increased carotenoid colouration and increased melanin colouration enhance apparent health in Caucasian faces by increasing skin yellowness, it remains unclear, firstly, whether both pigments co...

Few endoparasite species are pigmented. Acanthocephalans are an exception however, with several species being characterised by yellow to orange colouration both at the immature (cystacanth) and adult stages. However, the functional and adaptive significance of carotenoid-based colourations in acanthocephalans remains unclear. One possibility is that the carotenoid content of acanthocephalan cys...